West Pittston council members adopt 2016 budget, approve liquor license transfer

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Plymouth Borough Council passes budget with no tax increase

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Sister Mary Margaret Miller saw something disturbing on her walk to daily Mass on Tuesday morning &#8212; the statue of the Virgin Mary that has stood in a grotto in front of St. Nicholas-St. Mary School for some 60 years was not on its pedestal.</p><p>&#8220;She saw that someone had obviously pushed it down,&#8221; Monsignor Joseph Rauscher, pastor of St. Nicholas Church, said in a phone interview, explaining the statue is quite heavy and he couldn&#8217;t imagine it being blown over by the wind.</p><p>&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t look as though anything big is broken, but the head of our Blessed Mother fell into the flowers,&#8221; Rauscher continued. &#8220;Some concrete or stone broke off, so there&#8217;s some damage.&#8221;</p><p>The statue was face-down on the ground with the head in a flower bed as of Tuesday evening.</p><p>Rauscher said the parish had received offers to help return the statue to its pedestal, but the decision was made to leave it as is until the police and insurance company investigate.</p><p>City police have dubbed the incident &#8220;institutional vandalism,&#8221; according to a post on the police department&#8217;s Facebook page. It occurred sometime between 10 p.m. Monday and 8 a.m. Tuesday.</p><p>&#8220;We presume it happened overnight. There were people in the church until around 9:00 for an Advent Reconciliation Service,&#8221; and no one noticed anything amiss upon leaving the church, Rauscher said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know what the reason was, and I don&#8217;t know what it accomplished.&#8221;</p><p>Rauscher said surveillance video from a business across the street from the school, located at 242 S. Washington St., will be reviewed in hopes of identifying the perpetrator(s).</p><p>Rauscher, who has been stationed at the church for the past 26 years in addition to a previous three-year assignment there, said the parish has seen vandalism and attempted break-ins over the years. &#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t say that it&#8217;s something that&#8217;s consistent, but it happens on occasion.&#8221;</p><p>Vandalism has included smashing glass on lamp posts, bending the posts over or breaking them and throwing stones at the church&#8217;s stained glass windows. One 125-year-old window was damaged. The last incident occurred a year or two ago, Rauscher said.</p><p>Rauscher recalls the statue of the Virgin Mary and a statue of St. Cyriac were put up in two stone grottos in front of the school in the mid 1950s because he was a student there at the time.</p><p>One statue was chosen &#8220;to honor our Blessed Mother&#8221; and the other was the patron saint of the pastor at the time &#8212; Monsignor Cyriac Staid. Both statues have weathered &#8220;all kinds of storms&#8221; unscathed for six decades until this incident, Rauscher said.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll just have to pray for whoever is the perpetrator,&#8221; Rauscher said, recalling Pope Francis has called on Catholics to use the ongoing Jubilee Year of Mercy to forgive others.</p><p>&#8220;We hope in mercy we can forgive the person or persons responsible and when they look at what they did needlessly, they&#8217;ll decide to change,&#8221; he said.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">A statue of the Virgin Mary lies on the ground Tuesday in front of a grotto to the left of the entrance of St. Nicholas-St. Mary Elementary School in Wilkes-Barre. The statue was pushed out of the grotto sometime overnight. A statue of St. Cyriac stands in a grotto to the right of the school entrance. The grottos were built and the statues placed there about 60 years ago. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Statue6-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>A statue of the Virgin Mary lies on the ground Tuesday in front of a grotto to the left of the entrance of St. Nicholas-St. Mary Elementary School in Wilkes-Barre. The statue was pushed out of the grotto sometime overnight. A statue of St. Cyriac stands in a grotto to the right of the school entrance. The grottos were built and the statues placed there about 60 years ago. </caption0><photoCredit0>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Statue1-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Monsignor Joseph Rauscher sits in front of the grotto from which a statue of the Virgin Mary was pushed onto the ground in front of St. Nicholas-St. Mary School in Wilkes-Barre and explains that this is not the first time someone has vandalized the school&#8217;s property. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Statue1-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Monsignor Joseph Rauscher sits in front of the grotto from which a statue of the Virgin Mary was pushed onto the ground in front of St. Nicholas-St. Mary School in Wilkes-Barre and explains that this is not the first time someone has vandalized the school&#8217;s property. </caption1><photoCredit1>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Statue2-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The base of the statue that was pushed over at St. Nicholas-St. Mary&#8217;s Catholic Elementary School in Wilkes-Barre sometime overnight Monday into Tuesday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Statue2-1.jpg</photo2><caption2>The base of the statue that was pushed over at St. Nicholas-St. Mary&#8217;s Catholic Elementary School in Wilkes-Barre sometime overnight Monday into Tuesday. </caption2><photoCredit2>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Statue4-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">A statue of the Virgin Mary lies on the ground in front of the grotto out of which it was pushed sometime overnight Monday into Tuesday outside St. Nicholas-St. Mary Elementary School in Wilkes-Barre. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Statue4-1.jpg</photo3><caption3>A statue of the Virgin Mary lies on the ground in front of the grotto out of which it was pushed sometime overnight Monday into Tuesday outside St. Nicholas-St. Mary Elementary School in Wilkes-Barre. </caption3><photoCredit3>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Statue3-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">A statue of the Virgin Mary lies face-down in a flower bed Tuesday after someone pushed it off a pedestal in a grotto in front of St. Nicholas-St. Mary School in Wilkes-Barre. City police are investigating the incident of institutional vandalism. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Statue3-1.jpg</photo4><caption4>A statue of the Virgin Mary lies face-down in a flower bed Tuesday after someone pushed it off a pedestal in a grotto in front of St. Nicholas-St. Mary School in Wilkes-Barre. City police are investigating the incident of institutional vandalism. </caption4><photoCredit4>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit4></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Statue5-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">A statue of the Virgin Mary lies face-down in a flower bed Tuesday after someone pushed it off a pedestal in a grotto in front of St. Nicholas-St. Mary School in Wilkes-Barre. City police are investigating the incident of institutional vandalism. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo5>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Statue5-1.jpg</photo5><caption5>A statue of the Virgin Mary lies face-down in a flower bed Tuesday after someone pushed it off a pedestal in a grotto in front of St. Nicholas-St. Mary School in Wilkes-Barre. City police are investigating the incident of institutional vandalism. </caption5><photoCredit5>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit5></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Figure of Virgin Mary in front of St. Nick&#8217;s-St. Mary&#8217;s damaged</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Steve Mocarsky</p><p>smocarsky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Steve Mocarsky at 570-991-6386 or on Twitter @TLSteveMocarsky.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

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Vandals knock over statue of Virgin Mary in front of St. Nick’s-St.Mary’s School in Wilkes-Barre